GTBank, Sterling Bank, Four Others Get Moody’s Ratings

• GTBank, Sterling Bank, Four Others Get Moody’s Ratings

Moody’s Investors Services has assigned national scale ratings to six Nigerian banks.

The lenders are: Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and the Bank of Industry.

According to a statement by Moody’s, the rating action follows the publication of new national scale rating maps for Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco which provide a measure of relative creditworthiness within a single country; and are derived from global scale ratings using country-specific maps.

The global rating agency assigned A1.ng/NG-1 national scale local currency deposit ratings to Sterling Bank.

Sterling Bank also confirmed this in a statement on Sunday.

Moody’s said, “These ratings were underpinned by a standalone baseline credit assessment of b3 and one notch of government support uplift, which results in a global scale long-term issuer and deposit rating of B2.”

The agency also assigned A2.ng/NG-1 national scale foreign currency deposit ratings to Sterling Bank, the lender confirmed in the statement.

“The A1.ng rating is the second highest of three national scale ratings categories corresponding to the bank’s local currency deposit global scale ratings,” it added.

Commenting on the development, the Executive Director, Finance and Strategy, Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, was quoted as saying that the ratings affirmed the lender’s business model and resilience amidst challenging operating conditions.